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Kernel panic
If you were looking for the virus, see BSOD. Blue Screen of Death (also known as a blue screen or BSoD) is an error screen displayed on a Windows computer system after a fatal system error, loses stability, or is cluttered with malware, also known as a system crash: when the operating system reaches a condition where it can no longer operate safely. A related problem to this is the Red Ring of Death (RRoD) on Xbox or Blue Light of Death (BLoD) on Playstation. On Windows Vista, 7, and 8 (but not Windows 8.1 or 10) if you end the task "csrss.exe" in the Task Manager (accessible by Ctrl+Shift+Del or by selecting "Task Manager" in Ctrl+Alt+Del menu), you will get a Blue Screen, however it does not do as much damage to you than what's displayed on a regular Blue Screen. Its Mac counterpart is the Mac Kernel Panic, and the Linux counterpart is the Kernel Panic. Often a Blue Screen appears after a virus destroys a critical file that is required to run Windows. After a Blue Screen upon reboot, it will tell you that "Windows has not shut down properly", and then you can recover your computer or start Windows normally. There are also some viruses that give you fake Blue Screens, which include: BSOD, Smash, Prizm, and Gollum. History Windows 1.0 and 2.0 Though the BSoD did not officially appear in Windows 1.0 and 2.0, something similar did appear. It was a screen that would appear at startup. It would start with "Incorrect DOS version" below the copyright of the startup logo before printing garbage (random symbols). It would either load the OS successfully or just load the OS full of white bars, forcing the user to reboot if the latter occurs. It often appears if the startup encounter problems, such as if the OS is installed on a version higher than MS-DOS 5.0 and setver was not used. Regular crashes would halt the system. Also, the C:\con\con trick does not work here. Windows 3.x Windows 3.0 did not feature a BSoD; a crash would simply halt and hang the system. Windows 3.1 featured an unofficial BSoD, which was the warning message via Ctrl+Alt+Del, which was the Task Manager. It would read that the user tried to end a process when there is none open. It allows any key to continue in Windows, and does no damage. If a process was unresponsive and Ctrl+Alt+Del was used, the BSoD would read that the process is not responding and allow the user to kill the process or reboot. Running C:\con\con will crash the system. However, this crash would still hang the system. The Gollum joke virus would place a BSoD at startup on a certain date, which would read a Hobbit quote. This BSoD does not do any lasting damage. Windows 9x Windows 9x (95, 98, and ME) BSoD resembles the Task Manager warning screens in Windows 3.1. Windows 95 is the first OS to have an official BSoD. This BSoD now shows the cause of the error, and either allow a Ctrl+Alt+Del reboot or to continue in Windows with a single keystroke. However, going back into Windows usually rendered the OS unstable until reboot. A notorious BSoD occurrence in Windows 9x occurred when Bill Gates plugged a scanner to a demo Windows 98 PC, only to later crash. It can be seen here. Another way to automatically activate a BSoD in Windows 95 and 98 without an update that patches this is to run the following in Run: C:\con\con. The other keys works instead of just "con": *AUX *PRN *CLOCK$ *NUL *A: - Z: *COM1 - COM9 *LPT1 - LPT9 *DEV (sometimes) The con issue is not present in Windows ME. Many Windows Codename Millennium (ME beta) versions had many different issues that caused different BSoDs. Shutting down in Safe Mode can show a "Windows Protection Error" BSoD, which would regularly occur during startup. Sometimes, shutting down would show a "Its now safe to shut down" BSoD if it did not support drivers. Prizm and Smash were some viruses that made fake BSoDs in this version. The BSoD virus also made a fake BSoD, though it does not resemble the one in the real Windows 9x. Windows NT 4.0 Windows NT 3.x also did not feature BSoDs - like Windows 3.0, a crash hung the system. Windows NT 4.0 features the most descriptive BSoD, featuring many files shown, the error, the OS build, adresses, and some instructions about it. Early betas of Windows NT 5.0 (Windows 2000 beta) also featured this BSoD before undergoing changes in later betas. Windows 2000 The BSoD is now less simpler, but resembles the Windows XP BSoD. It would feature the code, error, and instructions. This BSoD is also present in early Whistler (XP beta) builds. Windows CE Windows CE featured BSoDs, which resembled Windows XP's but without an error, and an auto-reboot timer at 30 seconds. Pocket PC did not have this BSoD. Windows XP, Vista, and 7 Windows XP makes another change on the BSoD. The font is now different, and is bigger, and still resembles the one in Windows 2000, except the error and its code is moved around. It is possible to get a BSoD on a Microsoft Hololens. This type of BSoD resembles the ones on Windows XP, Vista, and 7. In Windows Vista, 7, and 8, if you open Task Manager and end the process "csrss.exe" (which is the Client/Server Runtime Subsystem, which the OS runs on top on), it will result in an immediate Blue Screen, however it is not harmful unless all unsaved work was lost or if startup files were corrupted. Early Windows 8 builds featured this before making a major change. Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 This is likely the final change to the Blue Screen. It now features a sad emoticon on the Blue Screen. This one is much easier to read and use, though it is less descriptive than the others. On Windows 8.1 and 10, the csrss.exe killing no longer triggered a BSoD; it will simply hang the system instead. However, cancelling csrss.exe and getting a Blue Screen will still work on Windows 8. Linux Kernel Panic This is a Linux counterpart of the Blue Screen of Death. It is black and looks like the boot menu. Mac Death Screen This is a Mac counterpart of the Blue Screen of death. This includes the Sad Mac, the Bomb, and etc. Types of Blue Screens -Regular Windows Blue Screens (all Blue Screens on regular Windows editions) -Windows 1.0 Blue Screen (these are full of some unreadable text appearing to be corrupted and only appear if the startup encounter problems, such as if the OS is installed on a version higher than MS-DOS 5.0 and setver was not used) -Sad Mac, Bomb, and other Mac Death Screens (Mac Kernel Panic) -Windows 8 beta Black Screen -Linux Black Screen Kernel Panic -iPhone 5S Blue Screen -Windows 3.1 Ctrl+Alt+Del -Fake Blue Screens (these can be found from viruses such as BSOD) Sources * https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh994433.aspx https://technet.microsoft.com/en- us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_of_death Category:Articles that need more information Category:Articles that need sources Category:Malware